• Observing and modelling
• Marine Climate Change Centre (MC3)
  • Monitoring and modelling
  • Climate change impacts
  • Mitigation and adaptation
• Ecosystems and biodiversity
• Assessing human impacts
• Animal health and food safety
• Fisheries information

Related links

• UK Climate Change Impacts Programme
• DECC: tackling climate change
• Defra: climate change
• CCRA: marine summary
• CCRA: marine sector report

Marine Climate Change Centre (MC3)

Our seas are changing, and around the UK they are changing potentially faster than any other place on the planet.

Marine climate change is having serious effects on people's lives, the environment and our economy. Yet, there is still much that we do not know or fully understand.

Cefas' Marine Climate Change Centre - the MC³ - is a practical response to the issues addressed within the UK's Climate Change Act. It co-ordinates the current thinking on marine climate change issues, investigates gaps in our knowledge and helps the UK to develop a robust response to these important challenges.

As such  MC³ scientists wrote the marine and fisheries sector reports for the Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) and will provide support for the National Adaptation Programme.

The MC³:

• is a nationally recognised centre for analysis and advice on the impacts of change at our coasts and in our seas
• provides access to the breadth and depth of applied marine science, as well as expertise in the economics of marine climate change
• focuses on
  • monitoring and modelling
  • impacts and assessment
  • mitigation and adaptation.

The MC³ is committed to making climate science programmes and research as accessible as possible. For example, it hosts the Secretariat for the Marine Climate Change Impact Partnership (MCCIP). This partnership brings together scientists, government and non-governmental organisations to provide co-ordinated evidence and advice. MCCIP's Annual Report Card succinctly summarises the current state of our knowledge on maritime climate change impacts.

Our partners

The MC³ works with a number of strategic partner organisations: 

• Environment Agency: adaptation measures
• Met Office: climate variability and future scenarios
• Tyndall Centre: links to the wider scientific community
• Cranfield University: risk assessment
• Living with Environmental Change: research agenda.

For more information about the MC³ contact: marine.climate@cefas.co.uk.